Making an Aztec CTF level for Unreal 3. I am still working on the design. But here is the basic design. I did the basic design in Maya, to see how everything was going to look.
Oh when i did it in unreal, to test everything out (length and width) it came out to short. so i had to change the size. Also i am working on the deign of a underground. It is going to look something like this:
Good luck man, I hope that you see this one to the finish. The cavern idea is interesting. With the floor submerged in water, you could also go above and beyond and do some animated water reflection on the ceiling with an animated spec map. This could help your map stand out for portfolio.
Hey cool idea!! That layout would make for an awesome Halo3 CTF map
The idea of the underground water hold is cool, but flooding the middle upstairs area doesnt make sense to me. Is this an extremely luxurious public bath? Where water could be wasted and used however? In your first model, i liked the hole in the middle better.
Also the trees on top of the structure, how are they growing up there on top of the building? It would be very difficult to run water up there to feed them. Unless it is the rainforest reaching over the edges of the building, nature taking over type of thing. Other types of foliage is perfect possible, vines, moss, etc.
cool concept! Cant wait to see it completed! Goodluck
dude this is pretty awesome, the level idea actually seems like it would work well for team deathmatch too. has an almost natural sniper gallery setup along with a good old scrum area in the centre.
definitely have a bash with the cieling reflection idea in the water cavern, and i agree the water should all be below ground.
as for the trees, they're kind of out of place, i'd considder having vines creeping up the walls, you could do it from two different points, too.
firstly, you could go with an abandoned ruins kind of theme, with fading red/sandstone walls, and the green/brown of the vines contrasting to that colour.
second, you could go with a very "alive" scene, with crisp, clean blocks, with an almost unearthly golden hue, and have things like grape, or other fruit vines along the walls/pillars, and use dark coloured fruit to give your contrast.
that also allows you to go with a dirty green colour water for the ruins, or a pure brilliant blue water for the not ruined version.
Hey Wise Brown Monkey.. I just thought I'd step in and say hi.. I am wondering about the bridge and what to do for normal mapping. Also have you decided if you are going to assign two people to texture, and two to model? or is it free for all?
Sorry about the long time with out a response or update. We have been working on it, just school and other stuff got in the way. Well here is a update. One Part is the upper level and the other part is the lower level. We are still working on this. We are in the process of "breaking stuff down" to make it look more worn out and old. We are also working on textures and more static meshes. We have been staring at this level for so long we were hoping to get some new eyes to look at and give us some input. We want to thank you guys for the help future and past.
Some textures may repeat and look blurry we are still working on it
PS:this is a group project with CNecron518a and Varsh (their names on forum)
Forgot to mention everything is modeled and textures by us, except the water. The fire was made using UT3 default packs, but we made the emitter from scratch.
yes, yes we did heh. Greetings all I am also one of the members of this group project for this level. Everything we have been doing and showing off was done in maya and also in UE3. It's has been an interesting experience thus far and we are still learning things as we go about this and always accept any and all feedback to help us make this into a great piece. So tell us what you think of it thus far and ask any questions you might have.
Hey there everyone I just wanted to second what Gary said here(wise brown Monkey) We go to the Academy of Art along with B.J.(Varsh) and this is our project for our Unreal class we are working on right now.
You guys might want to double check your monitors and gamma settings, because that is definitely way too dark. Open those screens in photoshop and check the histograms.
Slightly exaggerated levels enhancement to show what people mean. Basically all your image information is so low you're not actually showing anything. Heck, even those I jacked the levels all the way up, it still looks like a night scene.
thanks guys. I actually have two monitors and the level changes from to really dark to really light. I might have to change the gamma (radiation......sorry geek-ed out) settings. We are going to add a moon light in the level. Will post a pic soon.
Hey guys, thanks for the better feedback that time. It helps a lot more. We were actually going for a night time scene with the lighting. I actually don't know if the night time lighting is compatible than with our level, as we have only torches right now as our light sources, and the moon light as well. I agree we should make it more lighter. Do you have any suggestions other then just adjusting the sky light? I think there are already too many torches as is, so perhaps we need to adjust the area of effect more as well as the main sky light.
Your last screen shot is a lot better, but I think the color from the sky needs to be bluer/purpler. The torches need to be a bit more intense themselves, and the area close the torch could use more light, and a larger fallout/area of effect.
thinking the torches need to put off more ambient light. along with the moon light. your textures are very dark and muddy to begin with so the dark lighting makes it worse.
all the reference photos you show has the stone looking a bit grey-ish * like most stone*... yet your textures have a poop brown color. any reason behind that?
- Night does not just mean dark. It means different ambient lighting color (stronger blue), and a greater reliance on local light sources (in your case, torches). For gameplay and presentation reasons it would be better to light things as though there is a half-full to full moon out than as if there were a very weak moon.
- Your current sky looks like sunset or sunrise, not night. Night skies do not have much red.
- Change the angle of the directional light to be a bit more vertical, and make it significantly less contrasty with the general night sky ambient light. You guys will need to rely on soft shadows and bounced lighting via Lightmass to convincingly convey the softness that typifies night lighting. It would be best for you to start experimenting with proper Lightmass setups now before your scene gets much more complex.
hey guys...you're all dumb..lol. Just kidding this is Morgan From Daniels classes. So as to the lighting I agree it is very dark. one way around this is to lower the the light source area so that the light that is sitting on top of the torches is far more focused and looks more like local light from the torches themselves. Now unfortunately this will not provide all your light that you will need so add in filler lights that are grayish blue (moon light). If you have those and your warm (orange) torches then it will create a nice contrast between lit areas (torches) and ambient lit areas(moon light). hope this helps!!
You could try adding some foliage like ivy and other creeping plants to brighten it up as your colours seem to be almost entirely browns at the minute, maybe making the textures slightly grayer would look better to I'm not sure about that one though.
sorry for the long time not updating , finals in school . Well watched some videos on how to light in unreal and here is my attempt.
yes it is a bit gloomy. I couldn't find any pics of an underground part for the Aztecs, i couldn't even find anything inside the pyramids. That is why we had to get ref pics of other places. That is why in those pics the stone is a different type/color then ours. We kind of made up the bottom using those ref pics, and used the stone type/color we based on real Aztec pyramids.
We are working on foliage and ivy etc... It's just we (the whole group) are taking multiple classes, hence the slow progress.
The we are working on more props and the lighting.
Sorry haven't read the whole thread but i think the scene is way to dark. Your loosing all your hard work to the doom3 syndrome i.e. pure blackness in the shade.
Could be my monitor, but i doubt it's much brighter?
All those torches would be bouncing red coloured light off the surronding surfaces, yet theres no reflection on the environment to suggest this.
Try increasing the falloff on the lights to get some light onto the surfaces close to the torches.
Also instead of leaving the shaded area pitch black, put some dim blue/purple fill lights in there to suggest reflections from the midnight sky.
The water could do with toning down in brightness as theres no bright enough objects in the scene to reflect.
yeah we have a habit of making our level to dark. Here is our level with the light really bumped up.
As for the touches, I'm working on them as we speak, trying to get the glow to work.
here is another go at the lighting. I tried to make the flames glow more. I also used Post Processing Volumes to get the greenish and reddish look. I also changed the sky to a lighter one.
The grass seems to be growing out of the stone flooring, and it's also very dense. Usually, foliage is broken up more when growing out of cracks in stone floors where dirt is exposed. You might want to use decals or alpha masks to break up the stone floor with cracks of dirt where the grass would be.
yeah we originally, had leaves on the trees which were green. So in order to make it go together more I changed the hue of my grass to be more green. But then we got rid of the leaves and I forgot to change the grass back.
Going to snag the posting spotlight from our group leader of the project here. Just a few updates to the underground part of the level here. Just like with the top part we now have a better lighting scheme.
Apologies for not following up right away, we have been busy with our other classes right now as well. But all of your feedback is welcomed and appreciated. We have all worked hard on this so further critiques and feedback are welcomed.
Did you guys start putting cards in your scene? A lot of that tiling needs to be broken up. Also it needs a ton more interesting shapes on some locations especially that last screen shot you showed with just the stairs. Adding big ass vases, broken ones, small flower beds, some plants, etc.
I think there should be more wear and delapidation in your level.... everything looks clean and boxed out. kinda like UT in the old days... think of where things would brake down and make the sillouhette of your models more interesting to look at. I think the plan of adding plants and vines that are growing everywhere is a good way to break ur boxed out layout. Also... some of ur walls look pretty flat cuz u are just using normals... maybe u can work some geom in some places to make it more interesting... this kind of architecture brings a lot to the table and you can work with a lot of it to make your scene look way more interesting. example:
you have to work your way from the big picture composition to the small details last... so get your geom to be interesting in its silhouette. that should work wonders for ya.
I think there should be more wear and delapidation in your level.... everything looks clean and boxed out. kinda like UT in the old days... think of where things would brake down and make the sillouhette of your models more interesting to look at. I think the plan of adding plants and vines that are growing everywhere is a good way to break ur boxed out layout. Also... some of ur walls look pretty flat cuz u are just using normals... maybe u can work some geom in some places to make it more interesting... this kind of architecture brings a lot to the table and you can work with a lot of it to make your scene look way more interesting. example:
you have to work your way from the big picture composition to the small details last... so get your geom to be interesting in its silhouette. that should work wonders for ya.
would you happen to know what that wall/pic/statue is called?
Here are some new recent pics.. We still have yet to work some more on this, but hopefully we will get some time in the future to get together again and continue to build on what we have.
Replies
Think like this but less intense:
The idea of the underground water hold is cool, but flooding the middle upstairs area doesnt make sense to me. Is this an extremely luxurious public bath? Where water could be wasted and used however? In your first model, i liked the hole in the middle better.
Also the trees on top of the structure, how are they growing up there on top of the building? It would be very difficult to run water up there to feed them. Unless it is the rainforest reaching over the edges of the building, nature taking over type of thing. Other types of foliage is perfect possible, vines, moss, etc.
cool concept! Cant wait to see it completed! Goodluck
definitely have a bash with the cieling reflection idea in the water cavern, and i agree the water should all be below ground.
as for the trees, they're kind of out of place, i'd considder having vines creeping up the walls, you could do it from two different points, too.
firstly, you could go with an abandoned ruins kind of theme, with fading red/sandstone walls, and the green/brown of the vines contrasting to that colour.
second, you could go with a very "alive" scene, with crisp, clean blocks, with an almost unearthly golden hue, and have things like grape, or other fruit vines along the walls/pillars, and use dark coloured fruit to give your contrast.
that also allows you to go with a dirty green colour water for the ruins, or a pure brilliant blue water for the not ruined version.
so much you could do with this =]
Some textures may repeat and look blurry we are still working on it
PS:this is a group project with CNecron518a and Varsh (their names on forum)
upper level:
underground part:
Cheers!
Please give any and ALL advice! Thank you!
Is that the only crit you have? Can you be more specific? as in what areas? is it overall too dark or in select areas?
How are the lighting/textures?
all the reference photos you show has the stone looking a bit grey-ish * like most stone*... yet your textures have a poop brown color. any reason behind that?
- Night does not just mean dark. It means different ambient lighting color (stronger blue), and a greater reliance on local light sources (in your case, torches). For gameplay and presentation reasons it would be better to light things as though there is a half-full to full moon out than as if there were a very weak moon.
- Your current sky looks like sunset or sunrise, not night. Night skies do not have much red.
- Change the angle of the directional light to be a bit more vertical, and make it significantly less contrasty with the general night sky ambient light. You guys will need to rely on soft shadows and bounced lighting via Lightmass to convincingly convey the softness that typifies night lighting. It would be best for you to start experimenting with proper Lightmass setups now before your scene gets much more complex.
yes it is a bit gloomy. I couldn't find any pics of an underground part for the Aztecs, i couldn't even find anything inside the pyramids. That is why we had to get ref pics of other places. That is why in those pics the stone is a different type/color then ours. We kind of made up the bottom using those ref pics, and used the stone type/color we based on real Aztec pyramids.
We are working on foliage and ivy etc... It's just we (the whole group) are taking multiple classes, hence the slow progress.
The we are working on more props and the lighting.
Could be my monitor, but i doubt it's much brighter?
All those torches would be bouncing red coloured light off the surronding surfaces, yet theres no reflection on the environment to suggest this.
Try increasing the falloff on the lights to get some light onto the surfaces close to the torches.
Also instead of leaving the shaded area pitch black, put some dim blue/purple fill lights in there to suggest reflections from the midnight sky.
The water could do with toning down in brightness as theres no bright enough objects in the scene to reflect.
As for the touches, I'm working on them as we speak, trying to get the glow to work.
Green looks too saturated. Trees could be a bit darker texture wise.
This is looking promising, keep working at it.
Also point noted on the grass on stone.
-Chris
I have nothing to say cuz I already said it last week in class. Go team go!
Again, I don't know how far you guys are into it.
https://courses.worldcampus.psu.edu/welcome/span131/images/PreColombianCivilizations/bimages/AztecArch.jpg
you have to work your way from the big picture composition to the small details last... so get your geom to be interesting in its silhouette. that should work wonders for ya.
would you happen to know what that wall/pic/statue is called?